Put Thompson on the list of Repug candidates who cannot be trusted to follow the Constitution or hold a fair election.

McCain probably would.

Mitt Romney on the basis of pandering and the Guatanamo II comments probably would not.

Would Ron Paul hold a fair election? He does seem to tell the truth as he (weirdly sees it).

So Thompson wants Griffin's caging talents. Interesting.

Fred Thompson, who supports the felon Scooter Libby, is now in talks with Tim Griffin? I guess the re-pibuc-ans figure this is the election to completely demolish the Constitution.

The brazenness of these people are nothing short of breathtaking. Not only has Fred Thompson been one of the few people on Scooter Libby's Defense Fund Committee to come out publicly in that role, but he looks to Rove for recommendations on setting up a campaign staff. The gene pool is really shrinking with these people--and does not augur well for future political IQ.

It is time to get his fanny in the witness chair so that we can all learn that "caging" is not a direct marketing term and that Tim Griffin was the chief cage master and was installed specifically to enforce the phony "election fraud" scandal.

I think you can flip that around, Steve. My money's on Rove pushing Griffin toward Thompson. I think Rove's pick for succeeding Bush has just been revealed. It'll be very interesting to see what the right-wing base organizations do and say over the next few weeks. I suspect we may see some direct quotes from Dobson and others about the merits of a Thompson presidency; they've been pretty luke-warm on their options so far. We'll see...

Joe

Good point Woodhall Hollow about Thompson's public defense of Scooter Libby. I'd forgotten about that one. Or on a more trivial level his ostentatious smoking of Cubans (in violation of the trade embargo). The brazenness is remarkable. It really tells you a lot about the kind of lap dogs he thinks the press will be for him. I hope (but don't particularly expect) he's wrong. It's up to the blogosphere to force the media's hand here and make them actually report.

Thompson: Cheney 2.0

what's all this fuss about Tommy Thompson?

Everyone should know by now that for any Repug to run a campaign one of the first members on your team is someone that specializes in dirty tricks, smear campaigns and fear mongering. Griffin is a Rove protege so Thompson may as well get one of the best out there.

Tekel, you're forgetting that in order to keep his USA job beyond August or September, Griffin will have to undergo the formal Senate review process. He's already stated publicly that he won't do that because it'll be impossible for him to get a "fair hearing." He's Rove's guy. Anybody who thinks Rove is going to just stand on the sidelines for '08 is kidding himself. He won't take an official position (duh), but he'll be a significant presence none-the-less.

Joe

Here we go. The Anointed Establishment candidate is here.
What Romney and McCain and Guiliani seem to not understand is nothing matters about your campaign or your policies or platform. Once Big Business get's behind you, you are The One. The rest get cast aside, no matter what the Republican rank and file want.

What a joke, the republican horserace. The Dems already have a bought and paid for process, but it is not ironclad and the right candidate can smash their whole system. The Reichwingers, however, are entirely beholden to the Corporatist machine. Whichever candidate get's advanced by the Corporatists WILL be the nominee. There IS NO OTHER outcome in the republican process...the Anointed Corporatist WILL BE the nominee.

My guess is Frightful Fred knows this and hasn't made a single step that wasn't reinforced by his talks with The Powers. His slow movement to Announcing is a product of The Powers deciding they cannot go with McRomneyAni. It is OBVIOUS that none of these guys has the right STUFF to be a corporate puppet master. GWB was a perfect corporate PUPPET but hugely incapable and incompetent. The Powers are certain they are getting a much more EFFECTIVE and masterful tool inserted into the WH this time.

The curtain has been drawn back, and a know-nothing pawn who pretends not to be a corporate flak is just not useful anymore. The mask is off, why pretend like it isn't? say the corporatists. Fred can act all nicey nice...if that works for awhile....but he'll do right by us even if the whole disguise is not working. They need someone in office who can think on his feet and stay out of all the crap LeChimp stumbles into. Seriously folks, where do you think the corporo-fascist take-over would be right now if there was someone other than a 3rd Grader in the Oval Office? Sure Cheney has been riding herd at the WH but he is not the best tool or first choice. Too unpopular, too much corporate baggage, etc.

Anyways, we are wasting ink and kilobytes worrying about McRomneyAni. The only criterion for the corporotists is can you carry corporate water, and are you electable. McRomneyAni is NO on at least 1 out of 2. And the idea of Thompson saying "you mealy mouthed traitor of a liberal" at debates and on the stump has the corporatist's mouths watering. They know McRomneyAni would be very vulnerable in debates, etc...but that Thompson can carry-off just the part they want him to play. He's a more likeable, less viagra'd up version of Rush Limpbow with a legal degree.

See how he has flakked for Libby and derided MM's 'Sicko' for all you need to know about Fu*$cked Up Fred. Hopefully those two stories alone will follow him on the campaign trail.

All the more reason to get Karl indicted and busy with his lawyers - if he's preoccupied with keeping his rear out of jail he won't have time to steal another election.

This little prick ought to be sitting in jail, not working on even more political assassination campaigns.

If Thompson wants to voluntarily pull the cloud of suspicion and criminality over his campaign by hiring a Rove secret agent, more power to him. It just serves to tell people that the Law & Order candidate is now working for the other side.

DemWoman -

It's Fred Thompson, not Tommy Thompson. Fred plays the DA on one of the Law & Order shows,

Initially I had the same reaction ["I need to correct this"] that you did. Then I looked at the poster's signature: Emily Latella.

Do you not remember the SNL skits where Emily would go on & on about something she'd "misheard" -- like "violins in schools" - and then at the end of her rant, when corrected [violence in schools] she'd say "nevermind"?

I think this was the original poster's point.

Emily are you any relation to Mrs. Panstreppon?

Tim Griffin and Karl Rove have problems related to caging, a felony.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4594

Too many emails have been found and, incidently, turned over to John Conyers. The perpetrator was then the prosecutor, U.S Attorney for Arkansas. Interesting arrangement.

Two bad actors. If what Greg Palast says is true, Griffin is the master cager himself.

The right always wants and actor who can deliver his lines without smirking like "W." Reagan was their hero for that reason.

WHY, is it OK for a person from Hollywood to run for office as a REPUBLICAN / Conseravative (like Reagon, Clint Eastwood, Gopher from the Love Boat, one of the Duke of Hazzard boys, Arnold Sch., Sonny Bono, Jesse Ventura - he sure ain't no liberal) But if a person from Hollywood speaks up, as an American citizen has the right to do, for a Democrat or Liberal cause they are told to shut up and here is Hollywood again forcing these issuses down our throats. More of the same old REPUBLICAN diuble strnadrds they live on and love and fight for, Someone please explain............

How is it exactly that Tim Griffin has been in the US Army Reserves since 1996, but only been called up to serve in Activy Duty for 10 months (only a portion of it in Iraq, the rest in Kansas)?

I wonder who his producer and director is, and who he'll hire as his screenwriter.

And here it is - from the guys themselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du9QWpCWbbY

Too bad about RFK's voice - That's a candidate!

hahahahahahahhahahahahahhaha I love it. first thing he does publicly is admit it is talking to a rovian criminal that is subject to ongoing federal investigation.
brilliant man this fred. fidel is putting something in his cigars.

"I will come back and post a picture of myself eating my hat if Tim Griffin has any role in that campaign. 90% of what you read about a campaign, particularly prior to an announcement is BS from people who are trying to position themselves."

Funny? No Jamal you are the funny one. We would NEVER trust a RepubliCON to post an actual picture of anything. It's kind of like "the insurgency is in it's last throws, if you will" per Dick. How many of our troops have been killed since the criminal vice president let this "bomb" go. 10 killed Memorial Day. Good job you RepubliCONs. Reich wingers need to sign up today to go to Iraq to bring "democracy" to a country that doesn't want American democracy.

C 92@May 30, 2007 02:15 PM - I think Griffin was supposed to have served in the JAG reserve from 9/05 to 9/06. He was at Fort Campbell in Kentucky from 9/05 to 5/04 which is when he supposedly went to Iraq for four months.

I say supposedly because another member of the TPM Cafe and I took a look at the email addresses used by Griffin in that period. If he exclusively used john.t.griffin@us.army.mil when he was in Iraq, he wasn't in Iraq in May 2006.

I posted about the emails and other information about Griffin's resume in the TPM Cafe (link below - be advised that the thread is slow to load.)

Griffin's resume is really pumped up if it isn't out and out not true.

As an aside, I heard some Democrats high up the food chain are taking a hard look at Griffin's resume.

Read it and weep:

http://www.gregpalast.com/the-goods-on-goodling-and-the-keys-to-the-kingdom/#more-1739

:-)

Fascinating facts about Thompson: recites admin talking points on the Plame scandal, member of the Libby Legal Defense Trust. See this article in today's Huffington Post by Mark Kleimen.

List Thompsons achievements in Congress._______________________________________
________________
Well, there was that personal life smear campaign he ran against Clinton.

Could the Dems get a movie star to run against Thompson since this country seems to believe the personas they play on the screen. God Help America.

A picture of Fred and his wife. A lovely pair !!

http://wonkette.com/politics/divorce/republican-family-values-fred-thompsons-trophy-wife-247154.php

Fred's son needs a job

Griffin resigns:

The U.S. Justice Department has notified "Arkansas's congressional delegation that Interim Eastern District U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin is resigning effective Friday, June 1. Jane Duke will become acting U.S. attorney. (This is the assistant in the office who the Justice Department once had said had to be passed over as an interim appointee because of her pregnancy. Since it's illegal to discriminate on account of pregnancy, Justice had to back off this statement.)"

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/

Arkansan@May 30, 2007 07:34 PM - Hot news! Link to Arkansas Times blog below.